Shattering Two School Records and Posting Seven Personal Best, Bronco Track Has Big Weekend at Cal and Stanford

The Bronco track teams collected seven personal bests in addition to breaking two school records this past weekend at the Brutus Hamilton Invite at Cal and the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite at Stanford. Sophomore Allie Sibole lowered the women's 1500m school record at Cal and senior Erin McCarthy lowered her own 800m record at Stanford.

"It was an outstanding weekend of competition," said Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro. "On Friday we ran seven personal bests at the Brutus Hamilton Invite including Allie's record-setting run and on Sunday Erin took full advantage of her opportunity to compete at one of the most elite track and field competitions in the country, smashing her best 800m time by nearly four seconds."

On Sunday, McCarthy ran one of the best races in Bronco track history at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite at Stanford. Going into the race McCarthy had a personal best of 2:13.66, set just last week. "Erin ran a very tough race, she took a risk and really committed to a fast early pace. She took the lead with 150 meters to go and was just out kicked for the heat win. Her time of 2:09.85 is probably on the bubble or just outside of qualifying for round one of the NCAA Championships. She will have a few more opportunities to move up on the performance list," said Montoro.

McCarthy was second in heat 4 and had the 29th best time overall, seventh best among collegians, as there were many professional and club athletes competing. Adidas athlete Morgan Uceny (professional), ranked #1 in the world last year in the 1500m, won the event in 2:02.46.

Highlighting the Broncos efforts at the Brutus Hamilton Invite hosted by Cal was the women's 1500m run. Sibole made an aggressive move early in the race to set up her record run. Sibole was just able to hold off her fast finishing teammate McCarthy, as the two crossed the line in tandem, Sibole in 4:35.26 and McCarthy in 4:35.27 to finish second and third overall. Both were under the previous record of 4:36.05 set by McCarthy earlier this season.

Also running a personal best in the 1500m race was junior Hayley Ney. Ney finished with a four-second PR in 4:36.90. It was her first time under the 4:40 barrier. Junior Erin Hartwig also ran well, finishing in 4:42.32. Also competing in the women's 1500m run were freshman Jenn Nakamura (4:53.94), sophomore Jamie Anderson (4:57.25) and senior Jenny Light (4:58.86).

The men's 1500m run saw Senior Richard Zhu run 3:56.52 for sixth place overall, a season best. Also running in the men's 1500m run was senior Matt Wagner who finished in 4:07.91.

The 800m run also provided excellent results with four runners doubling back from their 1500m runs. The women were led by Hartwig who doubled, running the 1500m as well. She finished second overall in 2:17.52 , a personal best. Sibole ran 2:18.77 also doubling back.

Freshman Amia Nash dipped under 2:20 for the first time this season, running 2:19.46. Nakamura and Light also ran well in 2:21.97 and 2:22.57, also doubling back from the 1500m.

Junior Matt Mosier led the SCU men in the 800m event, running a personal best of 1:56.50. Zhu doubled back from the 1500m and was right behind Mosier at 1:56.94.

The 5000m event had many Bronco entrants. In the women's event, freshman Mary Kriege continued her outstanding freshman campaign, running 17:34.30 to finish in fourth place overall. Sophomore Kayla Germany ran a big personal best of 18:08.16 and Lauren Germany just dipped under 19:00 finishing in 18:59.39.

Both teams will be back in action next week at the Sac State Open preparing for the West Coast Invite on May 12th.

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